Utilisation of reproductive health services by school going adolescents and young adults in Eldoret Municipality

Abstract

Introduction The lives of millions of adolescents worldwide are at risk because they often lack the information, skills, health services and support they need to go through sexual development during adolescence'. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers an adolescent to be aged between 10-19years. However adolescence is defined as more of a phase in ones' life than a fixed time period and therefore based on common social and other circumstances, this study refers to respondents aged between 13-24 years as adolescents. Problem statement Despite grim reports of adolescents' deaths attributed to unsafe sex, pregnancies and AIDS very little attention has been given to reproductive health services tailored for adolescents in Kenya. Adolescents often lack access to comprehensive reproductive health services, which include education, counseling, treatment and products. Therefore there is need to investigate the adolescents utilization of reproductive health services and the various factors that come to play. Objectives The main objectives of the study: To assess the reproductive health services available to adolescents in Eldoret municipality. To investigate the adolescents' knowledge of reproductive health services available to them in Eldoret municipality. To investigate adolescents' attitudes towards these reproductive health services.To investigate the adolescents' utilization of various reproductive health services available to them in Eldoret municipality. Study design This study was designed to investigate adolescents' utilization of reproductive health services in an urban cosmopolitan society in Eldoret Municipality. Cross-sectional study design was applied. A sample of384 adolescents was obtained from primary, secondary and tertiary learning institutions in seven different locations in the municipality. Direct observation of health facilities was conducted in the seven locations to investigate the adolescents' utilization of their reproductive health services and to assess their adolescent friendly qualities. Data analysis was done using frequencies, means, cross tabulations and Statistical Significance was tested using Chi-Square statistical tests, Analysis of Variance and Logistic Regression at 95% confidence. Findings Health facilities in the municipality lacked key adolescent friendly attributes. More than half (56.5%) of respondents said the facilities did not meet their reproductive health needs. Majority (>60%) of respondents did not have sufficient knowledge of reproductive health services available to them in the municipality. Most of the respondents (80%) had good attitudes toward reproductive health services. Utilization of reproductive health services was linked to adolescents attitudes (p-value = 0.000) and these attitudes were linked to quality of services (p-value <0.0001) as well as other adolescent friendly attributes of the facilities. Conclusion & Recommendations Health facilities' lack of adolescent friendly attributes has a negative impact on adolescents' attitudes and this hinders their utilization of the same services. It is therefore recommended that health service providers adopt adolescent friendly criteria provided by WHO (World Health Organization) which have proven successful in other countries. It is recommended that health service providers, parents, schools and the entire community join forces in increasing access to information on adolescents' reproductive health services and community based initiatives to promote adolescents' reproductive health.